THE ANATOMY OF DRUNKENNESS.
SIXTH EDITION.
THE
ANATOMY
OF
DRUNKENNESS.
BY ROBERT MACNISH,
AUTHOR OF “THE PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP,” AND MEMBER OF THE FACULTY
OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF GLASGOW.
SIXTH EDITION.
GLASGOW:—W. R. M’PHUN, PUBLISHER;
N. H. COTES, 139, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON.
MDCCCXXXVI.
Glasgow:—E. Khull, Printer to the University.
TO
DAVID M. MOIR, ESQ.
SURGEON, MUSSELBURGH,
THIS WORK IS INSCRIBED,
WITH EVERY SENTIMENT OF ADMIRATION,
BY HIS SINCERE FRIEND,
ROBERT MACNISH.
ADVERTISEMENT.
TO THE FIFTH EDITION.
In preparing the present edition of the ANATOMY OF DRUNKENNESS for the
press, I have spared no pains to render the work as complete as possible.
Some parts have been re-written, some new facts added, and several
inaccuracies, which had crept into the former editions, rectified.
Altogether, I am in hopes that this impression will be considered an
improvement upon its predecessors, and that no fact of any importance has
been overlooked or treated more slightly than it deserves.
R. M.
_20th Sept. 1834._
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
Preliminary Observations, 15
CHAPTER II.
Causes of Drunkenness, 28
CHAPTER III.
Phenomena of Drunkenness, 36
CHAPTER IV.
Drunkenness Modified by Temperament, 52
CHAPTER V.
Drunkenness Modified by the Inebriating Agent, 61
CHAPTER VI.
Enumeration of the Less Common Intoxicating Agents, 98
CHAPTER VII.
Differences in the Action of Opium and Alcohol, 106
CHAPTER VIII.
Physiology of Drunkenness, 111
CHAPTER IX.
Method of Curing the Fit of Drunkenness, 120
CHAPTER X.
Pathology of Drunkenness, 132
CHAPTER XI.
Sleep of Drunkards, 170
CHAPTER XII.
Spontaneous Combustion of Drunkards, 175
CHAPTER XIII.
Drunkenness Judicially Considered, 190
CHAPTER XIV.
Method of Curing the Habit of Drunkenness, 197
CHAPTER XV.
Temperance Societies, 223
CHAPTER XVI.
Advice to Inveterate Drunkards, 236
CHAPTER XVII.
Effects of Intoxicating Agents on Nurses and Children, 241
CHAPTER XVIII.
Liquors not always Hurtful, 246
APPENDIX.
No. I.
Excerpt from Paris’ Pharmacologia, 257
No. II.
Mr. Brande’s Table of the Alcoholic Strength of Liquors, 260
CHAPTER I.
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.
Drunkenness is not, like some other vices, peculiar to modern times. It
is handed down to us from “hoar antiquity;” and, if the records of the
antediluvian era were more complete, we should probably find that it was
not unknown to the remotest ages of the world. The cases of Noah and Lot,
recorded in the sacred writings, are the earliest of which tradition
or history has left any record; and both occurred in the infancy of
society. Indeed, wherever the grape flourished, inebriation prevailed.
The formation of wine from this fruit, was among the earliest discoveries
of man, and the bad consequences thence resulting, seem to have been
almost coeval with the discovery. Those regions whose ungenial latitudes
indisposed them to yield the vine, gave birth to other products which
served as substitutes; and the inhabitants rivalled or surpassed those
of the south in all kinds of Bacchanalian indulgence—the pleasures of
drinking constituting one of the most fertile themes of their poetry, in
the same manner as, in other climates, they gave inspiration to the souls
of Anacreon and Hafiz.
Drunkenness has varied greatly at different times and among different
nations. There can be no doubt that it prevails more in a rude than in
a civilized state of society. This is so much the case, that as men get
more refined, the vice will gradually be found to soften down, and assume
a less revolting character. Nor can there be a doubt that it prevails
to a much greater extent in northern than in southern latitudes.[1] The
nature of the climate renders this inevitable, and gives to the human
frame its capabilities of withstanding liquor: hence, a quantity which
scarcely ruffles the frozen current of a Norwegian’s blood, would scatter
madness and fever into the brain of the Hindoo. Even in Europe, the
inhabitants of the south are far less adapted to sustain intoxicating
agents than those of the north. Much of this depends upon the coldness of
the climate, and much also upon the peculiar physical and moral frame to
which that coldness gives rise. The natives of the south are a lively,
versatile people; sanguine in their temperaments, and susceptible, to an
extraordinary degree, of every impression. Their minds seem to inherit
the brilliancy of their climate, and are rich with sparkling thoughts
and beautiful imagery. The northern nations are the reverse of all this.
With more intensity of purpose, with greater depth of reasoning powers,
and superior solidity of judgment, they are in a great measure destitute
of that sportive and creative brilliancy which hangs like a rainbow over
the spirits of the south, and clothes them in a perpetual sunshine of
delight. The one is chiefly led by the heart, the other by the head. The
one possesses the beauty of a flower-garden, the other the sternness of
the rock, mixed with its severe and naked hardihood. Upon constitutions
so differently organized, it cannot be expected that a given portion of
stimulus will operate with equal power. The airy inflammable nature of
the first, is easily roused to excitation, and manifests feelings which
the second does not experience till he has partaken much more largely
of the stimulating cause. On this account, the one may be inebriated,
and the other remain comparatively sober upon a similar quantity. In
speaking of this subject, it is always to be remembered that a person is
not to be considered a drunkard because he consumes a certain portion of
liquor; but because what he does consume produces certain effects upon
his system. The Russian, therefore, may take six glasses a-day, and be
as temperate as the Italian who takes four, or the Indian who takes two.
But even when this is acceded to, the balance of sobriety will be found
in favour of the south: the inhabitants there not only drink less, but
are, _bonâ fide_, more seldom intoxicated than the others. Those who
have contrasted London and Paris, may easily verify this fact; and those
who have done the same to the cities of Moscow and Rome, can bear still
stronger testimony. Who ever heard of an Englishman sipping _eau sucrée_,
and treating his friends to a glass of lemonade? Yet such things are
common in France; and, of all the practices of that country, they are
those most thoroughly visited by the contemptuous malisons of John Bull.
It is a common belief that wine was the only inebriating liquor known
to antiquity; but this is a mistake. Tacitus mentions the use of ale or
beer as common among the Germans of his time. By the Egyptians, likewise,
whose country was ill adapted to the cultivation of the grape, it was
employed as a substitute for wine. Ale was common in the middle ages;
and Mr. Park states that very good beer is made, by the usual process of
brewing and malting, in the interior of Africa. The favourite drink of
our Saxon ancestors was ale or mead. Those worshippers of Odin were so
notoriously addicted to drunkenness, that it was regarded as honourable
rather than otherwise; and the man who could withstand the greatest
quantity was looked upon with admiration and respect: whence the drunken
songs of the Scandinavian scalds; whence the glories of Valhalla, the
fancied happiness of whose inhabitants consisted in quaffing draughts
from the skulls of their enemies slain in battle. Even ardent spirit,
which is generally supposed to be a modern discovery, existed from a
very early period. It is said to have been first made by the Arabians in
the middle ages, and in all likelihood may lay claim to a still remoter
origin. Alcohol was known to the alchymists as early as the middle of the
twelfth century, although the process of preparing it was by them, at
that time, kept a profound secret. The spirituous liquor called arrack
has been manufactured in the island of Java, as well as in the continent
of Hindostan, from time immemorial. Brandy appears to have been known to
Galen, who recommends it for the cure of voracious appetite;[2] and its
distillation was common in Sicily at the commencement of the fourteenth
century. As to wine, it was so common in ancient times as to have a
tutelar god appropriated to it: Bacchus and his companion Silenus are
as household words in the mouths of all, and constituted most important
features of the heathen mythology. We have all heard of the Falernian and
Campanian wines, and of the wines of Cyprus and Shiraz. Indeed, there
is reason to believe that the ancients were in no respect inferior to
the moderns in the excellence of their vinous liquors, whatever they may
have been in the variety. Wine was so common in the eastern nations, that
Mahomet, foreseeing the baleful effects of its propagation, forbade it
to his followers, who, to compensate themselves, had recourse to opium.
The Gothic or dark ages seem to have been those in which it was least
common: in proof of this it may be mentioned, that in 1298 it was vended
as a cordial by the English apothecaries. At the present day it is little
drunk, except by the upper classes, in those countries which do not
naturally furnish the grape. In those that do, it is so cheap as to come
within the reach of even the lowest.[3]
In speaking of drunkenness, it is impossible not to be struck with the
physical and moral degradation which it has spread over the world.
Wherever intoxicating liquors become general, morality has been found on
the decline. They seem to act like the simoom of the desert, and scatter
destruction and misery around their path. The ruin of Rome was owing
to luxury, of which indulgence in wine was the principal ingredient.
Hannibal’s army fell less by the arms of Scipio than by the wines of
Capua; and the inebriated hero of Macedon, after slaying his friend
Clytus, and burning the palace of Persepolis, expired at last of a fit
of intoxication, in his thirty-third year. A volume might be written in
illustration of the evil effects of dissipation; but this is unnecessary
to those who look carefully around them, and more especially to those who
are conversant with the history of mankind. At the same time, when we
speak of drunkenness as occurring in antiquity, it is proper to remark,
that there were certain countries in which it was viewed in a much
more dishonourable light than by any modern nation. The Nervii refused
to drink wine, alleging that it made them cowardly and effeminate:
these simple people had no idea of what by our seamen is called _Dutch
courage_; they did not feel the necessity of elevating their native
valour by an artificial excitement. The ancient Spartans held ebriety
in such abhorrence, that, with a view to inspire the rising generation
with a due contempt of the vice, it was customary to intoxicate the
slaves and exhibit them publicly in this degraded condition. By the
Indians, drunkenness is looked upon as a species of insanity; and, in
their language, the word _ramgam_, signifying a drunkard, signifies also
a madman. Both the ancients and moderns could jest as well as moralize
upon this subject. “There hangs a bottle of wine,” was the derisive
exclamation of the Roman soldiery, as they pointed to the body of the
drunken Bonosus, who, in a fit of despair, suspended himself upon a tree.
“If you wish to have a shoe of durable materials,” exclaims the facetious
Matthew Langsberg, “you should make the upper leather of the mouth of a
hard drinker—for that never lets in water.”
If we turn from antiquity to our own times, we shall find little cause
to congratulate ourselves upon any improvement. The vice has certainly
diminished among the higher orders of society, but there is every reason
to fear that, of late, it has made fearful strides among the lower.
Thirty or forty years ago, a landlord did not conceive he had done
justice to his guests unless he sent them from his table in a state of
intoxication. This practice still prevails pretty generally in Ireland
and in the Highlands of Scotland, but in other parts of the kingdom it is
fast giving way: and it is to be hoped that the day is not far distant
when greater temperance will extend to these jovial districts, and render
their hospitality a little more consonant with prudence and moderation.
The increase of drunkenness among the lower classes may be imputed to
various causes, and chiefly to the late abandonment of part of the duty
on rum and whisky. This was done with a double motive of benefiting
agriculture and commerce, and of driving the “giant smuggler” from the
field. The latter object it has in a great measure failed of effecting.
The smuggler still plies his trade to a considerable extent, and brings
his commodity to the market with nearly the same certainty of acquiring
profit as ever. It would be well if the liquor vended to the poor
possessed the qualities of that furnished by the contraband dealer; but,
instead of this, it is usually a vile compound of every thing spurious
and pestilent, and seems expressly contrived for the purpose of preying
upon the vitals of the unfortunate victims who partake of it. The extent
to which adulteration has been carried in all kinds of liquor, is indeed
such as to interest every class of society. Wine, for instance, is often
impregnated with alum and sugar of lead, the latter dangerous ingredient
being resorted to by innkeepers and others, to take away the sour taste
so common in bad wines. Even the colour of these liquids is frequently
artificial; and the deep rich complexion so greatly admired by persons
not in the secrets of the trade, is often caused, or at least heightened,
by factitious additions, such as elderberries, bilberries, red-woods,
&c. Alum and sugar of lead are also common in spirituous liquors; and,
in many cases, oil of vitriol, turpentine, and other materials equally
abominable, are to be found in combination with them. That detestable
liquor called British gin, is literally compounded of these ingredients:
nor are malt liquors, with their multifarious narcotic additions,
less thoroughly sophisticated or less detrimental to the health. From
these circumstances, two conclusions must naturally be drawn; _viz._,
that inebriating agents often contain elements of disease foreign to
themselves; and that all persons purchasing them should endeavour to
ascertain the state of their purity, and employ no dealer whose honour
and honesty are not known to be unimpeachable. Liquors, even in their
purest state, are too often injurious to the constitution without the
admixture of poisons.[4]
The varieties of wine are so numerous as almost to defy calculation.
Mr. Brande, in his table,[5] gives a list of no less than forty-four
different kinds; and there are others which he has not enumerated.
Ardent spirits are fewer in number, and may be mostly comprised under
the heads of rum, gin, brandy, and whisky. The first is the prevailing
drink over the West Indies, North America, and such cities of Great
Britain as are intimately connected with these regions by commerce. The
second is extensively used in Holland and Switzerland, the countries
which principally furnish it, and has found its way pretty generally
over the whole of Europe. The third is chiefly produced in Charente
and Languedoc, and is the spirit most commonly found in the south.
The fourth is confined in a great measure to Ireland and Scotland, in
which latter country the best has always been made. Of malt liquors we
have many varieties. Britain, especially England, is the country which
furnishes them in greatest perfection. They are the natural drinks of
Englishmen—the _vinum Anglicorum_, as foreigners have often remarked.
Every town of any consequence in the empire has its Brewery; and in
almost every one is there some difference in the quality of the liquor.
Brown stout, London and Scotch porters, Burton, Dorchester, Edinburgh,
and Alloa ales, are only a few of the endless varieties of these
widely-circulated fluids.
Besides wines, ardent spirits, and malt liquors, there are many other
agents possessing inebriating properties. Among others, the _Peganum
Harmala_ or Syrian rue, so often used by the sultan Solyman; the
_Hibiscus Saldarissa_, which furnishes the Indian bangue, and from
which the _Nepenthes_ of the ancients is supposed to have been made;
the _Balsac_, or Turkish bangue, found on the shores of the Levant;
the _Penang_, or Indian betel; the _Hyoscyamus Niger_; and the _Atropa
Belladonna_. In addition to these, and many more, there are opium,
tobacco, _Cocculus Indicus_, and the innumerable tribes of liqueurs and
ethers, together with other agents of a less potent nature, such as
clary, darnel, and saffron. The variety of agents capable of exciting
drunkenness is indeed surprising, and in proportion to their number seems
the prevalence of that fatal vice to which an improper use of them gives
rise.